How to Avoid Snow Removal Scams

Published at 4:36 PM EDT on Mar 21, 2014

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(NECN: Greg Wayland) - Getting the snow and ice off your roof is a priority. But doing it right is important too. If you hire someone to do it for you, you must do your homework.

Reporter Greg Wayland has more on snow removal scams.

Our houses wear grotesque icy beards under heaped up toupees of snow. All of it almost beautiful. if it weren't so potentially dangerous and damaging.

Ice dams, icicles, heaps of snow overhead. It really ought to go. Contractor Doug Whitla and his crew were clearing off this house in Wellesley, Mass. He has advice if you're looking for someone to clear off your house.

"You should go with a roofing company because you know they're insured to be on your roof."

"There are a lot of people that'll come with a ladder and a truck but if they're not insured and they fall off, it might seem like a lot of money to spend to get them to shovel it. But once he falls off, it's going to be a lot more."

As for cost, he's getting sixty dollars an hour for his people. Search and you can find someone to do it for less.

Ask them what they are in an hourly rate, how they're going to do it, and to what extent they're going to do it.

Mass undersecretary of consumer affairs Barbara Anthony seconds the motion that snow removal contractors should be licensed home improvement contractors, which includes roofers.

And don't do business with anyone who's not registered. And ask for references. Ask your neighbors who they're using.

And -- very important: Don't pay up front. That is the best advice that I can give to consumers.